$145 million FTC settlement over fake government-branded health insurance ads
The FTC announced in August 2025 that Seattle-based telemarketer Assurance IQ, LLC and Los Angeles-based digital advertiser MediaAlpha, Inc. would pay a combined $145 million to settle charges that they misled consumers shopping for health insurance. MediaAlpha allegedly ran deceptive websites with names like ObamacarePlans.com and GovernmentHealthInsurance.com to imply a government affiliation and sold roughly 119 million consumer leads in 2024; Assurance IQ's telemarketers allegedly misrepresented short-term and limited-benefit plans as covering preexisting conditions and having no benefit caps, in violation of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $145.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- ACA marketplace switching and enrollment fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-24
The facts, as recorded
- Assurance IQ, LLC, founded and operated by Michael Rowell and Michael Paulus, agreed to pay $100 million; MediaAlpha, Inc., operating subsidiary QuoteLab, agreed to pay $45 million, a combined $145 million.
- The FTC alleged Assurance IQ's telemarketers falsely claimed short-term medical and limited benefit indemnity plans covered preexisting conditions, had no caps on benefits, and gave access to provider networks that would significantly lower costs.
- The FTC alleged Assurance IQ charged some consumers for coverage without obtaining their express informed consent, violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
- The FTC alleged MediaAlpha used domains including ObamacarePlans.com and GovernmentHealthInsurance.com to imply a government affiliation, and promoted a fictional 'Health Insurance Give Back Program' using paid actors and a doctor delivering scripted 'advertorial' segments claiming consumers could get 'a great health plan for $1 a day.'
- MediaAlpha sold approximately 119 million consumer leads to telemarketing partners in 2024 alone, according to the FTC, including leads generated by calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.
- Both cases were resolved through proposed stipulated final orders: Assurance IQ's filed in the Western District of Washington and MediaAlpha's in the Central District of California, approved by 3-0 Commission votes, with the settlement funds designated for consumer refunds.
- FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Christopher Mufarrige said: "Consumers should receive accurate, truthful, and non-misleading information about the coverage insurance provides."
Why this case matters
This is the largest FTC settlement on this page and the clearest documented example of the “official government website” impersonation layer of this scheme: MediaAlpha’s alleged domains and fake advertorials were built specifically to look like a branch of the ACA marketplace itself, rather than a private lead-generation operation selling consumer data to telemarketers.
Two roles in the same pipeline
The two companies are alleged to have played different roles in the same funnel this scheme’s page describes: MediaAlpha allegedly generated and sold the leads, using domains and a fictional “give back program” designed to look official; Assurance IQ allegedly took those leads and misrepresented the actual health plans being sold over the phone. Neither the leads nor the misrepresented plans were, according to the FTC, ACA marketplace plans at all in Assurance IQ’s case, short-term and limited benefit indemnity products are explicitly not required to meet ACA coverage standards, which is exactly why misrepresenting them as comparable is the alleged violation.
The scale of the data involved
119 million leads sold in a single year, by one company, is a figure that helps explain why this scheme’s damage shows up in national complaint statistics rather than as a handful of isolated incidents.
The caveat
These are civil FTC allegations resolved through proposed stipulated final orders, not findings from a trial. The orders require Assurance IQ and MediaAlpha to stop the specific practices described and pay into a consumer redress fund; the press release reviewed for this page does not state whether either company admitted or denied the underlying allegations as a condition of settling.
Sources
- Assurance IQ and MediaAlpha to Pay a Total of $145 Million to Settle FTC Charges That They Misled Consumers Seeking Health Insurance. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-24. Supports: All facts in this case file: the settlement amounts, the named founders, the plan misrepresentations, the fake government-branded domains, the 'Health Insurance Give Back Program', the 119 million leads figure, the Do Not Call Registry allegation, the court filings, and the Mufarrige quote.